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A Couple of Mornings at Streetz

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
583802 300x193 A Couple of Mornings at Streetz

Manuel Osborne-Paradis

Every morning at Streetz 104.7 in Winnipeg, Big Will, Miss Melissa and I discuss the most important news stories from around the World of Sports (that sounds so media-like, “The World of Sports.”).

We have discussed, for example, the fact Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki are an item, the drug issues of Lance Armstrong, the NBA and NFL lockouts, the fact nobody can score in the CFL anymore (except Montreal) and that the quarterbacks are generally horrible (except for that 38-year-old guy who had cancer last fall),  the on-air retirement (the guy with big balls quit right on the air) of the play-by-play announcer of the Lake County Fielders, the fact the Winnipeg Jets are the very best AHL team in the NHL and that they should get a really high draft pick next spring and Melissa’s lust for professional baseball players (it’s a healthy lust).

This week, however, we had a number of very lively discussions. After talking about Marc Tyler, the running back with the USC Trojans who made a very bad decision and decided to make drunken remarks to a hand-held camera while drinking with his pals in L.A. — a decision that got him on TMZ and then suspended from the team for the season opener and maybe longer — we learned of the public drunken screw-up perpetatred on himself by national ski team member Manuel Osborne-Paradis.

Seems Manny, while still recovering from a broken leg suffered on the World Cup circuit in January, was shit-faced at the Calgary Stampede and decided that it was a good idea to bounce around the bed of a pickup truck, fall off, get hooked to the trailer hitch and be dragged “some distance,” according to the police report. Evidently, he suffered road rash so severe that he underwent “multiple operations,” to repair the damage.

But get this: the Calgary gendarmes charged him with a traffic summons for “riding or being towed outside a vehicle.”

We don’t like to laugh at other people’s misfortune, but 27-year-old athletes should be able to handle their liquor better than that.

Good thing he can ski, because neither drinking nor thinking appears to be among his stronger traits.

Then we talked about Reggie Bush. More specifically, Reggie Bush’s ex-girlfriend and new girlfriend.

470 melissa molinaro 110721 300x168 A Couple of Mornings at Streetz

Melissa Molinaro

Of course we all know the New Orleans Saints RB and kick returner was once the fiance of Kim Kardashian. Seems Kardashian is pissed because a young Canadian model named Melissa Molinaro is now featured in Old Navy ads. Kardashian, who because of her stunning ability as a thespian in an  internet sex video, has sued Old Navy for $20 million claiming that Molinaro looks to much like her. Huh?

Called “a reality show starlet and model” by the mainstream media (sure, why not?) Kardashian sued Old Navy and its parent company, The Gap Inc., in a Los Angeles federal court alleging “the advertisements violated Miss Kardashian’s publicity rights with a woman who looks like her.”

Well, that’s certainly true and yes, the ads have been viewed more than two million times at Old Navy’s YouTube channel so people certainly do like looking at Miss Molinaro — even when she’s not engaged in some sort of, you know, internet-style chuck-and-grind.

Molinaro’s response on Twitter to the lawsuit was freakin’ priceless: ”We’re still talking about this?” she posted, adding that the ad started running five months ago. “Some people have too much time on (their) hands.”

Kardashian’s lawsuit claims, “Miss Kardashian has invested substantial time, energy, finances and entrepreneurial effort in developing her considerable professional and commercial achievements and success, as well as in developing her popularity, fame, and prominence in the public eye,” the lawsuit states.”

Achievements?

Here’s what’s really pissing her off: Melissa Molinaro is Reggie Bush’s new squeeze. As my colleague Big Will suggested: “He really likes curvy brunettes, doesn’t he?”

Don’t we all, young Will? Don’t we all?

Finally, we talked a lot this week about the never-ending bull-pucky that Winnipeggers were subjected to over Bomber quarterback Buck Pierce.

Day in and day out, all we got was, “Buck might not play this week. It might be Alex Brink.” Bull-pucky. There was never any doubt Buck was going to play this week.  There was a better chance you or I could start at quarterback than Alex Brink.

By the way, just to be clear, Buck Pierce IS starting at quarterback when the Bombers face Toronto at Rogers Centre at 3 p.m. CDT on Saturday. The bull-pucky has stopped. At least for the rest of this week.

For more fun, tune into Streetz 104.7 every morning at 7:15, 7:45, 8:15 and 8:45. It’s the place where sport is only taken seriously when the co-hosts got eight hours sleep the night before — and I can guarantee that’s not going to happen.

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Glenn Awful, Young Bomber Defense Makes a Statement.

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

It took two years, but former Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike Kelly was absolutely right about at least one thing: He got rid of Kevin Glenn for a  reason.

Friday night in the 2011 Canadian Football League season opener for both Winnipeg and Hamilton, Glenn stunk to high heaven as the Bombers came back from a 16-9 halftime deficit to stun the Tiger-Cats 24-16.

Hamilton scored no points in the second half. Nothing. Nada. In the CFL, the Tiger-Cats didn’t get close enough to the Bombers goal line to kick a single. That sucks out loud.

Before he was pulled, Glenn finished the game 18-for-31 for 187 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. That wasn’t gritty old Hamilton you were smelling, that was the Hamilton quarterback.

It would be nice to say that Alex Suber — who was, indeed, terrific — and his mates on the Bombers defence were the game’s heroes, but the real game-changer was Glenn. He threw three INTs, all of them unforced errors, simply bad passes right into the hands of Blue Bomber defenders. Twice he did it without any pressure at all. The interception he threw to Suber, the one that was returned for a touchdown, looked like he’d been paid by the mob to throw it to the defensive back.  It was one of the worst passes in CFL history.

Of course, he threw another interception off a roll-out when there wasn’t a Bomber within 10 yards of him. He was brutal.

Regardless, the Bombers made a heck of a statement last night. While the offence did next to nothing, the young defence was outstanding (and yes, Glenn was the best friend they could ever have ever asked for). Suber, O’Dell Willis, Jovon Johnson, Joe Lobendahn, Jonathan Hefney, Don Oramasionwu, Ian Logan, they were all terrific as the Bombers went out onto the road and did a tremendous job against a team many thought had a chance to take a run at the defending Grey Cup champion Montreal Alouettes.

Buck Pierce was a wonky 12-for 26 for 151 yards, one touchdown and one interception, but his defense was good enough – against a purely rotten quarterback and a new offensive coordinator (Khari Jones) who made some odd play calls — that the Bombers QB didn’t need to win a game by himself.

If this Bomber defense continues to play as well as it did on Friday night, there is no telling how good this team could be.

Friday night the Bombers went into Hamilton and made a loud statement. Fortunately for them, Kevin Glenn held up the microphone.

kevin glenn 300x232 Glenn Awful, Young Bomber Defense Makes a Statement.

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Things That Make You Go “Hmmmmm…”

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
More things that make you wonder what people are thinking.

1) The Winnipeg Jets have done what they needed to do. General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff tendered offer sheets to restricted free agents Andrew Ladd, Eric Bogosian and Blake Wheeler.
And one guesses he absolutely had to do it because he really doesn’t have much else on his roster. The draft was weak and Cheveldayoff got a player, Mark Schiefele with the No. 7 overall pick, who might be a decent player in a couple of years. But not now.

In the meantime, the new Jets have very few scorers.
While the 2010-11 Atlanta Thrashers scored more goals than the Montreal Canadiens, Los Angeles Kings and Ottawa Senators, they were still stuck at 20th overall in goal scoring with just 218 on the season. They were also remarkably weak defensively, allowing the second most goals in the NHL at 262 (only Colorado at 287 was worse).
Of course, this was a Thrashers’ team that was 12th in the East and 25th overall in the NHL. At 34-36-12, they were one of only seven teams that failed to reach the .500 mark. 

Still, in fairness, the Thrashers were a YOUNG team that didn’t score much and so at least there is some upside. And what the heck, an inability to score is pretty indicative of where the NHL is in 2010. Fact is, most teams don’t score much.

As an example, there were only 29 30-goal scorers in 2010-11 and only 24 in 2009-10. Compare that to the year before the lockout (2003-04) when fans complained that there was a dearth of scoring in the NHL – there were 30 30-goal scores in 2003-04 and most hockey observers thought that was weak.

Despite the NHL’s big talk, scoring is at an all-time low. Remember when the league said that after the 2004-05 lockout it was going to open up the game for goal scorers? Well, there’s a big fail.

There really aren’t all that many goal scorers anymore, period. While Atlanta’s Andrew Ladd, with 29 goals, led the Thrashers last year and while it might look strange that the Thrashers didn’t have a 30-goal scorer all of last season, the fact is, there were only 29 30-goal scorers in the entire league last year.

The new Winnipeg Jets aren’t a very good team, but they are indeed young and Claude Noel proved last year, at the helm of the Moose,  that he can make a lot out of very little.

While no one should expect the Thrasher-Jets to win the Stanley Cup, there is certainly a decent chance they could make the playoffs.

And in Winnipeg, that would be a very big deal, indeed.

2) It seems a lot of people want to beat up on Adam Dunn this season and I can certainly see why. The one-time formidable ball striker with the Cincinnati Reds has become a complete bust with the Chicago White Sox. Dunn is currently hitting .173 and has struck out 100 times in 221 at bats. That’s frightening.

He reminds me of Dave Kingman, the big bomber, near the end of his career. In fact, in 1984, Sports Illustrated wrote this scouting report of Kingman: “Hits the ball high, wide and seldom. Catches it occasionally. Has developed an iron glove to go with his lead bat.”

Dunn never had much of a glove, but in the American League, he got to be a designated hitter. Or, in this case, a designated misser.

3) Vegas oddsmakers have made the Calgary Stampeders, at 11-4, the favorites to win the Grey Cup. No doubt Calgary has a good team, but are they better than Montreal? Are they even better than Hamilton?

Montreal is next on the Futures line at Vegas at 3-1. Saskatchewan is third at 11-2 followed by B.C. at 6-1, Edmonton and Hamilton at 7-1, Toronto at 8-1 and Winnipeg at 10-1.

All that stuff is fun, but it really doesn’t mean much.

The only thing that really matters is how well these eight teams play on the field and if there is one thing about football that guarantees the old adage, “…on any given Sunday,” it’s the fact the game is as much about emotion and brute strength as it is about speed and skill.

Having said that, here in Winnipeg, if quarterback Buck Pierce doesn’t stay vertical, this Blue Bomber team could have serious stress. In other words, for Bomber fans, brute strength is most important inasmuch as it will allow the speed and skill to be able to do what they do.

In fact, if there is one team in the Canadian Football League that needs a great year from its offensive line, it’s the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Thursday, we’ll have our 2011 CFL Preview.

 

 

 

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Bombers Kids Look Good in Pre-Season Loss

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Sometimes the kids will surprise you.

Thursday night at rickety old Canad Inns Stadium, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers young players did a great job in the fourth quarter as the Bombers came back from a 23-9 deficit after three quarters and tied the only pre-season game in Winnipeg at 23-23, before losing 30-23 on a 73-yard touchdown run by Chad Kackert. The young Kackert had five carries for 107 yards to lead the Argos.

The highlight of the night, however, took place on TV. With mic’d up quarterbacks and coaches on TSN, it was a tremendously entertaining evening. All games should be presented that way.

As it is, the Bombers finished the pre-season 0-2, but remember, pre-season is just practice. The big news was that quarterback Buck Pierce started and looked pretty good over a quarter and a half. He didn’t get the ball into the end zone, but he put up some impressive numbers and if he stays healthy the Bombers will win more than four games this season.

NOTEBOOK: People close to the new NHL franchise in Winnipeg, say Manitoba Falcons, not Winnipeg Jets, appears to be the front-runner for the team’s name. We should learn the name before Friday night’s draft. At least one would hope. Otherwise, when a player is drafted it would be appropriate to hand the kid a white T-shirt with the words “Coming Soon” printed on it… Friday night Winnipeg general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff will make his first selection in the 2011 NHL draft. He’ll pick seventh and will likely try to get a scorer. After all, the Atlanta Thrashers did not have a 30-goal scorer last season… Claude Noel is a great choice as the team’s first head coach. He did a nice job with an average Manitoba Moose club last year… My new book, “Quiet Hero: The Ken Ploen Story,” will be released this coming Wednesday, June 29. Thanks to Ken, Roy Rosmus and Landon McCormick for all their help… In the opening match of their four game series with Argentina, the National Women’s Volleyball Team won 3-0 in straight sets on Thursday night at the University of Manitoba’s Investors Group Athletic Centre. Too bad the city has virtually forgotten that our women’s national volleyball team still trains and plays here. We might be too big and too hockey-centric to play host to a national volleyball team anymore… The Winnipeg Goldeyes open a three-game series with the Lincoln SaltDogs at Shaw Park Friday Night. I’ll be live with Jamie Bettens on Shaw TV beginning at 7 p.m… The Manitoba Junior Hockey League released its 2011-12 schedule yesterday. The regular season will open on Friday night, September 16 with the Blues at Selkirk, Dauphin at Steinbach and Waywayseecappo at OCN. The final games will be played Sunday, Feb. 26 with Selkirk at Steinbach and Winkler at the Saints…

 

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No Time For Panic

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Last year, in the only pre-season game between the two teams, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers drilled the Montreal Alouettes 34-10. Trouble was, the Alouettes went on to win the Grey Cup while the Bombers finished 4-14.

So to say I was surprised this weekend to listen to Bombers fans panic over Thursday night’s 27-15 pasting at the hands of those same the Montreal Alouettes, would be an understatement.

Indeed, the Bombers were ripped in Montreal and indeed, Buck Pierce did not make the trip. This game, after all, was a chance for Joey Elliott, Alex Brink and Justin Goltz to get a few snaps. We all know Pierce is the starting quarterback this season, period. However, if he does get injured, and history suggests that he will, Elliott (first) and Brink (second) will have to be ready to play.

It’s unlikely that either one of the team’s young quarterbacks will get a chance until such time as Pierce goes down (if, in fact, he does) so last Thursday in Montreal, they got a chance to run a few plays. That’s all that game was about.

Trouble was – and it is trouble – some of the people at the game who report the game to the fans through various media outlets suggested that those same fans should panic if Pierce ever goes down. It was suggested that without Pierce the two backups “proved” that they weren’t ready to get the job done.

Well, that’s kind of silly. There was absolutely no indication that Elliott, Brink or Goltz can’t play. None whatsoever.

First of all, they played behind young offensive linemen with young receivers and young backs. Not only did Buck Pierce stay at home, but so too did Terence Jeffers-Harris, Greg Carr, Terrence Edwards and Fred Reid, The young quarterbacks played alongside receivers and backs named Cory Watson, Jade Etienne, Perry Floyd, Clarence Denmark, Carl Volny and Chris Garrett. These are guys we might not ever hear from again.

This was a game between the Blue Bombers kids and Alouettes kids. All we learned was that the Alouettes kids are better than the Blue Bombers kids. That game proved absolutely nothing else.

There is nothing more meaningless in sports than the outcome of a pre-season game. It’s practice, nothing more, nothing less. And if anyone says that Winnipeg’s backup quarterbacks can’t play because they were less than satisfactory in a game in which they played with virtually nobody of consequence, than that person is dead wrong.

Thursday night’s pre-season game meant nothing unless you were Paul LaPolice. The Bombers head coach had a reason for doing the things that he did and the rest of us probably wouldn’t understand what those reasons were, anyway.

In the meantime, to suggest Joey Elliott and/or Alex Brink couldn’t replace an injured Buck Pierce is misguided. What happened Thursday night has nothing to do with what might happen in July or August or whenever.

 

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A Week in the Trenches: How the Media Makes Mountains Out of Mole Hills.

Posted on February 19, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Sometimes you read a newspaper and just shake your head. Sadly, far too many people read them and then read irrational things into them.

Obviously, that’s what they’re going for, those old broken down newspaper folks. At a time when the daily reading of newsprint has lost its lustre because, well, everything in it is yesterday’s news, you have a dilemma.

The question: How to entice readers? The answer: Two ways. Either make stuff up or take stuff that isn’t made up and make a bigger deal out of that stuff than is warranted.

Mountains out of mile hills, as they say. And we’ve had a week of it.

1) When Detroit Tigers all-star first baseman (and almost American League MVP) is picked up on a DUI this week, the American newspaper world goes wacky. Apparently, having a player drink scotch and then get caught behind the wheel of a car after drinking scotch will alter the chemistry of a team. That’s what the newspaper pundits said this week. A collection of dudes who can neither throw nor catch decided that Cabrera’s drunk-driving charge would end all hope for the Tigers to win a Central Division title.

Really? Seriously? Not according to Tigers manager Jim Leyland. Leyland told the Detroit Free Press “I know for a fact, without getting into this situation, I know for a fact Miguel Cabrera is in the best shape of his life. He’s stronger than he’s ever been, and he’s quicker than he’s ever been . . . I think Miguel Cabrera is probably going to have the biggest year of his life.”

Of course, the Free Press didn’t agree with him. Certainly not Mitch Albom, who destroyed Cabrera in his column.

Leyland went off. Most of the Tigers players barely noticed. Even other Free Press reporters admitted they couldn’t find any trouble in the Tigers clubhouse

“It’s not going to affect the team at all,” Leyland said. “All these people that are getting dramatic about this . . . and all this negative impact. It’s not going to affect this team one bit. Trust me. That’s all reading material, everybody getting all upset and getting real dramatic.”

Here’s the deal. The guy screwed up. He’ll be punished. Will probably have to use some of his $13 million this year to hire a driver. End of story.

2) The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have decided not to spend wads of money on free agents this year. Instead, they want to get the players who played well last year under contract and then try to bolster their Canadian content (’bout freakin’ time).

The local papers haven’t been too happy about that, but on Friday night, head coach Paul LaPolice made it clear that he wasn’t in the least bit concerned.

“Well, for one thing, everybody is forgetting we got the best defensive co-ordinator in the league, Tim Burke, from Montreal,” LaPolice told the audience listening to the MJHL on NCI FM, just hours after the Blue had re-signed centre Obby Khan. “We lost nine games by four points or less last season. That has to change. But spending large amounts of money on free agents that may or may not pan out is not the way we want to go. I’ve watched the Washington Redskins do that for years and it hasn’t worked out for them.

“We believe we’ve built a very good young team here. Yes, if we want to BE better than 4-14, we have to play better than we did last year, but to me and to Mr. Mack (Bombers GM Joe Mack), our priority was to sign the young players we brought along last year, upgrade our coaching staff and make sure our core of veteran players are happy and ready to go. Doug Brown is back, Obby Khan is back, we’ve been monitoring (quarterback) Buck Pierce all winter — he moved here and he’s been working out every day —  and with addition of Tim and the naming of Richard Harris as assistant head coach, we’ve upgraded the coaching staff.

“Now, we just have to go out and get the job done.”

The Bombers will be fine. Stop making something out of nothing.

3)  On Friday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, the federal jurist assigned to the perjury case against Barry Bonds, directed both sides to cut a deal.

Prosecutors responded to Illston’s request by saying they would discuss a plea agreement with Bonds’ lawyers, even though one of Bonds’ attorneys believed the case would go to trial. Bonds will plead “not guilty” for the third time when he is arraigned – again! — on March 1. He was initially charged in 2007 with lying to a grand jury about his alleged steroids use. The trial is scheduled to start March 21. Four freakin’ years after the only charge was laid and more than a decade since the government started chasing Bonds’ ass all over North America.

The North American mainstream media is desperate — absolutely desperate — to have Bonds convicted of something. Anything. Make it up. Just get him convicted. They’ve been trying Bonds for a dozen years in the court of public opinion and news that Illston wanted the prosecutors to cut a deal suggests that she isn’t convinced the feds have much of a case. The response from Bonds’ lawyers that the case will likely go to trial suggests that they know the feds don’t have much of a case.

Few people in history have spent as much time waiting for the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice to build a case as Barry Bonds. And what do they have for the hundreds of millions of public dollars that have been spent on this goofy case? They have a suggestion that Bonds might have known what his trainer was giving him and that because of this, Bonds hit a bunch of home runs in a bunch of stinkin’ baseball games and he should go to jail for eternity for doing that.

That’s messed up.

This is so silly. So incredibly stupid, that when we, up here in comfortable, quiet, well-educated Canada, make fun of Americans for being inherently dumb, this is all we need to use as an illustration. In a country that says its governments — both at the federal and state levels — are flat broke, is there a bigger waste of money in the entire world than using hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars to chase down a baseball player for using the juice to hit homers?

If indeed, the United States is broke, as the Republicans claim, then this is the reason it deserves to be broke.

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Bombers Lose Again. Not From Lack of Effort.

Posted on September 5, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

On the same day, the Winnipeg Goldeyes ended a disappointing season with a win, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers did their best impersonation of the Cleveland Browns.

Juan Diaz hit his team leading 24th home run of the year and drove in his team-leading 75th run of the year as the Goldeyes beat Schaumburg 4-3 in the final game of the 2010 campaign. Kevin West drove in his 70th run of the year and won the “Hit the Cover off the Ball” Trophy as the team’s leading hitter by finishing the season with a .337 average, just barely ahead of Diaz’s .335. The Goldeyes finished 46-53 and there will be plenty of soul-searching in the off-season.

But enough of the good news. In Regina yesterday, the Bombers were beaten 27-23 by the heavily-favored Saskatchewan Roughriders in the annual Labor Day Classic. The Bombers covered the 10 1/2 points, but they also fell to 2-7 on the season, and also fell further into last place in the CFL East. With the loss, the Bombers also fell out of the lead in the crossover playoff  with the two dogs in the West.

It was a game the Bombers should have won. Easily. But because they play like the Browns, every time it looked as if they just might steal a win, they turned the ball over or dropped a pass or got sacked. It also appears as if they’ve lost No. 1 quarterback Buck Pierce for an extended period of time after he injured his arm late in the fourth quarter on a play that might have been called roughing the quarterback in a different game with a different group of officials.

On Sunday, the Bombers had 391 yards of total offence to 359 for Saskatchewan (without losses), but they never held the lead. The Riders jumped out to a 1-0 lead, a 4-0 lead, a 4-3 lead, an 11-3 lead, and 11-6 lead and an 11-9 lead at the half. Then they held an 11-10 lead, an 18-10 lead, an 18-17 lead, a 25-17 lead, a 26-17 lead, a 27-17 lead and a 27-23 lead. They won 27-23, because the Bombers holder, Mike Renaud, mishandled the snap on the convert attempt with 10 seconds remaining. It was Browns-like.

All in all, it was an ugly day for Winnipeg. If they weren’t turning it over, they were taking a bad penalty. Every time it appeared they were going to take over the game, they screwed up. It was not a lack of effort. It was a lack of concentration against a team that, on this Sunday afternoon, was just that much better.

The Bombers are the best 2-7 team in CFL history, but they’re still 2-7. That means they are still a lousy football team.

And yet, I’ll wager two Sport Select tickets that they win the Banjo Bowl.

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Bombers Look Good in Defeat. But Doesn’t it Get Old Saying That?

Posted on August 1, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Saturday night in Calgary, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers played a pretty decent football game in a 23-20 loss to the Stampeders.

It’s unlikely head coach Paul LaPolice and his staff are happy about it  and you can pretty much bet the players are pissed at losing, but all things considered, a 23-20 loss to the best team in the West in their ball yard isn’t the end of the world.

OK, so the Bombers offence was marginal, but the guy playing quarterback, Steven Jyles, was simply a backup filling in for No. 1 Buck Pierce and when Pierce is ready to go, the Bombers should pick it up. In the end, Jyles was barely 50 per cent at 17-for-30 for 227 yards and two touchdowns, but 61 of those yards came on a single play when Jyles hit Terrence Edwards on long TD pass after Calgary’s Brandon Browner completely blew the coverage.

Granted, the Bombers had a chance to win it late in the fourth quarter, but from the Calgary 30, Jyles missed three straight receivers and that was it. When you consider that the Bombers offence as able to put up only 18 points (the final two points came on a time-wasting safety by the Stamps themselves just to blow the final seven seconds off the clock) while the defence played so well, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Winnipeg might have won that game with Pierce at the helm.

Defensively, the Bombers bent but didn’t break. At least, not too often. Calgary QB Henry Burris put together a terrific drive on the first series of the third quarter, but after moving the ball from deep in their own end to deep in the Bombers end, Philip Hunt forced a fumble and the Bombers made a game of it.

“I told the team I was proud of their effort,” LaPolice told reporters in Calgary after the game. “We put ourselves in a position to win the game, but unfortunately we didn’t make enough plays to win it. Hats off to them, they’re a good defensive unit.”

LaPolice is a decent man. I know football coaches and I know he was steaming underneath. The Bombers did have a chance to win and probably should have. However, aside from everything else, this effort did prove that when healthy, the Bombers are definitely capable of competing with any team in the league. Especially on the defensive side of the football.

The Bombers are now 2-3. Next week, they go into Hamilton, the site of that 28-7 loss in Week 3, in two weeks they get Hamilton back in Winnipeg on Aug. 13 (where the Bombers won 49-29 in Week 1) and in three weeks they go to Montreal where they’ll really be tested. Then it’s back-to-back with Saskatchewan. By Sept. 12, after their 10th game, we’ll know if this is a good Bomber team or just another also-ran.

Listen every Monday through Friday at 9:20 a.m. and 5:20 p.m. for the NCI Blue Bomber Reports brought to you by Valour Tri-West Insurance. In Winnipeg, the reports can be heard at 105.5 FM. Outside Winnipeg, check local listings for the NCI network station in your area.

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At Home in the Whine Cellar

Posted on June 20, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

I arrived home on Friday rather shocked to see my wife in her favorite chair on the sundeck, reading a book and then hearing the droneful buzzing of what I thought were vuvuzelas. For a died-in-the-wool football and baseball fan, I would never have expected to see (or hear) my bride watch soccer.

“That’s not the soccer game,” she said without looking up from her book. “It’s the mosquitos. This is June in Winnipeg. Some of these mosquitos are bigger than wasps. I put out some coils. It’s not bad here.”

Silly me, and I thought it was the World Cup.

Speaking of the World Cup, there are two things that I love: (1) all the players who dive around as if they’ve been shot in the back of the head and (2) all the referees who call things they don’t see.

The officiating in the World Cup is silly. I wouldn’t call it bad. I’d just call it apochryphal. These guys make up fouls that don’t happen, they pick out one foul in a series of fouls , they call offsides or miss offsides when they don’t see it and on Sunday, the referee pulled a red card on Brazil’s Kaka when Kaka barely made contact with a player from Cote d’Ivoire who should have been kicked out for life for bad acting.

When I heard that FIFA might have sent Koman Coulybaly home for blowing the call on the Yanks’ third goal in the USA’s comeback 2-2 draw with Slovenia, I was marginally impressed. Only marginally, because FIFA didn’t suspend the dozen or so other referees who had made calls as egregiously bad.

The dude in that Brazil-Cote d’Ivoire match shouldn’t be allowed to officiate a match involving nine-year-olds, let alone a World Cup match. But, hey, I’m not the only won whining. The referees’ supporters should listen to the players and managers. It’s a joke.

*          *          *

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers were drilled 38-20 in Hamilton in their final pre-season game yesterday, proving once again that pre-season games don’t mean squat.

When you go from a 34-10 win over Montreal in your first pre-season game (read: practice scrimmage) to a 38-20 loss in your second, all it means is that head coach Paul LaPolice and his staff were looking to see who could play and who couldn’t. They got a better sense in Game 2.

Kevin Glenn, who should never have been released in Winnipeg, threw a pair of touchdown passes as he took the Bombers apart in the first quarter. Buck Pierce struggled and Steven Jyles looked good for Winnipeg. LaPolice appears to have a decision to make.

Regardless, after Hamilton leaves Winnipeg on July 2, we’ll all — and that includes the coaching staff — have a better idea as to where this Blue Bombers team actually stands in the CFL’s Eastern Conference. Those two practice games meant nothing.

*          *          *

Heading back to watch the golf. I’ll see how long it’ll be before I’m forced to hit the mute button. I don’t know about you, but I’m just so tired of Johnny Miller’s new full-time job as captain of the Phil Mickelson Cheerleading Team.

UPDATE: Miller just described a trap shot facing Ernie Els as “impossible to get close.” Els stiffed it. Just another day listening to Johnny Miller saying things are going to happen and they never do.

Golf is really quite enjoyable on CBS. Miller kills it on NBC.

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Four Questions, Two-and-a-Half Answers

Posted on June 17, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

It’s been a week of golf here in the ‘Peg.

First, a terrific Variety charity event at Niakwa that was an absolutely fantastic day. Played with Gail Kennedy, who will be teeing it up in the Pro Am portion of the LPGA event at St. Charles next month and if she keeps her head, she will be every bit as good as the pros who play in Winnipeg.

After that, we played in the NCI-Streetz 104.7 invitational tournament at Buffalo Point’s magnificent Lake of the Sandhills Golf Course and it’s just too good to believe. What a golf course. And playing with Sam, Rube and Lou Edwardsen was great fun, too.

At both of these tournaments, I was asked four questions. Not one of them had anything to do with the upcoming civic election. Here goes:

(1) Who do you like in game 7 of the NBA Final?

No question. The Lakers. They’re at home, Kobe’s going to win the MVP award and now that we’ve reached Game 7 there is no need for the league to worry about how much revenue it can suck out of the series.

Boston certainly has a chance. No doubt about it. But I’m buying a Sport Select ticket with Lakers on it today.

(2) Who do you like in the World Cup?

The experts (and that means my friend, soccer writer Jerrad Peters) like Brazil-Spain in the final. I like Brazil, Argentina, maybe England and perhaps even Germany.

So, do I get four choices?

(3) How are the Bombers going to do this year?

They could be a .500 team if the offensive line keeps Buck Pierce vertical. They could be 2-16 if Pierce suffers another head injury.

The simple answer is: Who knows?

The test is simple. If the Bombers win their first two games, both at home against Hamilton and Toronto, they’ll have a good season.

(4) Are the Jets coming back to Winnipeg?

Yes. And whomever acquires an NHL franchise had better call the team “the Jets.”

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